The Trouble With Princesses (36 page)

“I cannot imagine what is keeping Mercedes, or Daniel either.” To her consternation, her voice sounded high and oddly strained. “I’ll ring for a servant to fetch them.”

She started to move away, but he reached out and caught hold of her wrist.

“Don’t,” he said. “Not yet. We’ve barely had a chance to say hello.”

Hello?
He wants to be civil now, does he?

Still, she didn’t pull away, her wrist lax within his grip. “I thought you didn’t care to waste time on niceties,” she said with undisguised sarcasm.

“Forgive me for that. My temper has been short of late.”

“I imagine so, what with you thinking you had fathered an out-of-wedlock child with me. You must be greatly relieved.”

He was silent for a long moment. “Actually, I am not.”

Surprised, she turned and looked up at him.

He stepped closer. “I was angry, of course, when I believed you hadn’t told me that you were expecting, but I never minded the idea of you carrying my baby.”

“So you wouldn’t have been upset having to bring home a bride you’d married over the anvil and a newborn baby who clearly had been conceived months before? Assuming, of course, that I had agreed to marry you at all.”

His grip on her wrist tightened. “Oh, you would have married me.”

“Would I? I am an independent woman now. I have plans. I am trying to decide between taking a villa in Italy or renting a whitewashed house by the Aegean Sea in Greece. They both sound delightful.”

“And will that make you happy? Living in such hot climes?”

“I cannot see why it wouldn’t,” she said, hoping her lie sounded more convincing to him than it did to herself.

“You won’t get lonely? Or are you planning to take a companion with you?”

She frowned. That was one part of her plan that had never set well with her. “I am sure I shall meet any number of interesting people. I won’t have time to grow lonely.”

“How about at night?” he drawled. “I know how restless you are without a man in your bed.”

He was right. She was restless and hadn’t enjoyed a truly good night’s sleep since the last night she’d spent with him.

But why was he saying these things? What was his purpose?

“Maybe I will find someone new,” she said, just to taunt him. “A swarthy Latin lover. They say such men have a streak of wild passion in them.”

With a slight tug, he pulled her against him. “I think you are much more suited to blonds.” He pressed a kiss against her jaw, making her skin tingle. “Besides, you already have a lover.”

“No, I don’t. You ceased being able to call yourself that months ago. You don’t want me. You made that quite plain the last time we spoke.”

“I don’t recall saying anything of the sort.”

“Then you have a faulty memory. I practically begged you to come to my room and yet you turned me away. You didn’t want me then and you don’t want me now. Cease this game, or whatever it may be.”

“It’s no game, and you are very much mistaken if you think I do not want you. Either then or now. I can see I handled matters badly before. Rather than worrying about your reputation, I should have tumbled you straight into bed the moment you arrived in Rosewald and bound you to me with a child. A real child.”

As if to emphasize his point, he splayed his palm over her buttocks and pulled her flush against him, so tight that she felt his growing erection. “In fact, I think I’ll use this time in Scotland to do just that. I can always claim I’m snowed in and cannot return home just yet.”

He brushed his mouth over her cheek, then across her temple. “Once you’re well and truly enceinte, then I’ll take you back to Rosewald with me. Oh, and we’ll get married here in Scotland. We don’t even need the license I procured.”

“Married? But you don’t want to marry me—not really. This is just about your duty and your pride again. I won’t be wed out of obligation!”

He looked her squarely in the eyes. “Then what
will
you be married for, Ariadne, since I cannot seem to do without you? I’ve been miserable since you left. Unbearable, if truth be told, terrorizing my court and making my servants turn pale every time I walk into a room. What do I need to do? What will it take for you to accept my pledge and promise to be mine from this day forward?”

She felt her heart skip a beat, then a second—unable to believe what she was hearing. “But I don’t understand. You don’t love me. I heard you say you didn’t that night in the library with Sigrid.”

He grimaced, his face awash with regret. “If only I could go back and erase that night, I would. But you’re wrong, you know. I never said I didn’t love you. If you’ll recall, I asked her if I looked like the sort of man who would marry for love. You and Sigrid just assumed you knew the answer.”

“But you
aren’t
the sort of man to marry for love.”

“You mean I
wasn’t
the sort.” He brushed his fingers tenderly over her cheek. “I didn’t know what it was to love until I took the blinders off my eyes and truly saw you, Ariadne. Why else would I have sailed through dangerous, storm-tossed seas in the dead of winter? Why else would I have left my kingdom and raced halfway across Europe except for you?”

“The baby . . . the one you thought I was going to have.”

“The one that gave me just the excuse I needed to come after you.” He gave a half smile. “Emma may have gone beyond the bounds with that letter of hers, but she knew what I needed. She knew that I love you and that I’ll never be happy unless I can make you my queen.”

Something shattered inside her, as if her heart had been encased in stone and he’d just chiseled it free.

“Oh, Rupert.” She took a gasping breath, tears streaming without warning down her cheeks.

“Oh, God, don’t cry,” he pleaded, his eyes tormented. “Please, darling, don’t be sad. Maybe I shouldn’t have spoken, but I had to try. I know you have your plans, that you want to travel. Can you trust me to find some way to make things work? I swear I will. Just don’t push me away again. Please don’t make me go away.”

He pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her with an ardor and desperation she had never thought she’d feel from him again.

Is this real? Or am I dreaming?

Suddenly nothing made sense, but whatever fantasy it was that she’d fallen into, she didn’t want it to end. And so she let him kiss her, let him take her mouth with one heady, feverish embrace after another.

“You wanted me once,” he murmured breathlessly. “Give me another chance. I know I can make you want me again.”

“I don’t have to give you another chance,” she said.

He stiffened under her hands, but she soothed him with a palm against his cheek. “I don’t have to because I’ve never stopped wanting you. And I wasn’t crying because I was sad. Don’t you see? It’s because I love you too. Have loved you for a long time now. I just never dreamed you might feel the same.”

His arms tightened around her, his eyes turning a brilliant blue. “You love me?”

“Yes.” She nodded, smiling. “More than you’ll ever know.” She twined her arms around his neck. “And I don’t care about traveling. I only said that about Italy and Greece so you wouldn’t know how miserable I’ve been. I still have some pride left, you know.”

He laughed. “Well, you are destined to be a queen.” He kissed her hard, sealing a vow. “
My queen
. Tell me now that you’ll marry me.”

“You’re sure you don’t want a more advantageous bride? Someone who will benefit your court and your country? Sigrid was right about that, you know. Objectively speaking, you could do far better than me.”

“I was arrogant enough once to think that practical considerations were all that mattered, but sometimes the heart is wiser than the head. As for doing better, there is no one better for me than you. I choose you as my consort, and anyone who objects can go to blazes.”

A weight seemed to lift from her shoulders as she realized that he truly did love her.

“Ask me properly, then,” she said gently.

He studied her for a long moment, then released her and dropped to one knee. Solemnly, he took her hand and gazed up into her eyes. “Princess Ariadne of Nordenbourg, will you do me the very great honor of becoming my wife?”

A radiant smile spread across her face. “
Yes!
Yes, Rupert, my dearest love.”

And suddenly he was standing and she was in his arms again, held tight as he crushed his mouth to hers. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, aglow in the knowledge that she would never have to leave his arms again.

He fit her closer still and was just starting to carry her across to a small sofa on the far side of the room, when a knock came at the door. Before either of them had time to draw apart, Mercedes came into the room, followed by her husband.

Mercedes was grinning, her eyes alight with obvious satisfaction. “See?” she said over her shoulder to Daniel. “I told you all that silence was a good sign.”

Daniel’s mouth twisted in a sardonic smile. “And I told you, love, that they had no wish tae be disturbed whatever might be transpirin’ inside. A pardon to you both, but there was no restrainin’ her.”

Mercedes ignored the remark and looked at Ariadne, then at Rupert—who had tucked Ariadne against his side—then back to Ariadne again. “Well? Did it work? Are you engaged again?”

Ariadne nodded her head. “Yes, we are. For good this time. But you needn’t look so smug about it.”

Mercedes’s brown eyes sparkled and she clapped her hands in delight.

“I knew I saw your hand in that letter of Emma’s once Rupert told me about it,” Ariadne scolded. “You two had no right to interfere, you know.”

“But you interfered on our behalf when Emma and I both needed a push in the right direction,” Mercedes returned. “We want you to be happy and so we thought it only fair that we return the favor. I could see how miserable you were without Rupert, and Emma knew he was sad and pining for you as well. So we thought we would give you both a little nudge.”

“By telling him I was expecting his child?”

Daniel’s auburn brows went skyward and he shot Mercedes a look. “Good God, woman, is that what you told him? No wonder King Rupert nearly froze himself to death racing up here. He probably near had heart failure tae boot!”

“It did the job, did it not?” Mercedes replied without an ounce of remorse. “Emma will be so pleased when she hears the news.”

“When I see her, she’ll hear a great deal more,” Ariadne threatened.

Mercedes’s smile diminished slightly. “You’re not
really
angry, are you? You and Rupert have made up your differences, so all is well in the end.”

And though she knew she ought to be cross, Ariadne couldn’t muster even the slightest twinge of outrage.

“No, I’m not really angry,” Ariadne admitted. She tipped her head back and gazed up into Rupert’s eyes, seeing her own feelings of joy reflected back. “How can I be when I’m with the man I love once again?”

Rupert smiled. “And I can only express my gratitude, Mercedes. You and my sister have done what no one else could have. You got two proud, stubborn people to humble themselves and admit to what they could not live without—each other.”

Then he bent and pressed his lips to Ariadne’s, much to her great delight.

Almost instantly, she forgot about their audience, far too enraptured by the heady passion of Rupert’s kiss to think of anything but him.

She was sliding her arms around his neck again when she became dimly aware of a pronounced bout of throat clearing coming from a short distance away.

“Shall we leave the two of you tae yerselves,” Daniel remarked, his voice warm with laughter, “or would ye care to continue this in one of the bedchambers? We’ve several from which you can choose, and of course, Ariadne already has a bedroom of her own.”

“Daniel, of all the things to say!” Mercedes admonished. “They aren’t even yet married.”

Unchastened, Daniel laughed. “That hasn’t seemed to stop them so far.”

Fairly caught, Rupert broke their kiss. His and Ariadne’s eyes met and suddenly they were laughing too.

After a minute, Mercedes joined in.

Rupert kept Ariadne close inside his arms. “So what shall it be?” he asked her. “Shall we kick them out or go upstairs?”

“Or we could have luncheon,” Mercedes suggested with a gentle smile. “The moment Cook heard that Rupert had arrived, she sent the kitchen maids into a frenzy. She’ll be most put out if we refuse to eat her offerings.”

“Luncheon?” Daniel remarked, his eyes alight at the idea. “I could do with a meal.”

“You are always ready for a meal,” Mercedes remarked indulgently.

Daniel patted his flat stomach. “’Tis what comes from years of soldiering. I ne’er knew when we’d get decent food, so I learned not to pass it up.”

“Well,
liebling
?” Rupert gazed down at Ariadne. “What do you say? Which one first, luncheon or love?”

Ariadne sighed. “I suppose it will have to be luncheon, since I’ve met Mercedes’s cook and I don’t want to be on her bad side. If we’re not careful, she’ll serve us haggis.”

The others laughed.

A slow smile curved Ariadne’s mouth, her heart filled with so much happiness she felt as if it had swelled to twice its normal size. “Besides, what will a small delay hurt, when we have a lifetime ahead of us to love each other?”

“You’re right, my dearest. This is only the start of our forever,” Rupert said.

Then he leaned down and sealed their future with a kiss.

Read on for a sneak peek at

Tracy Anne Warren’s new contemporary romance,

The Last Man on Earth

Available from Signet Select in January 2014

“Y
ou no-good, low-down, scurvy dog!”

The door to Zack Douglas’s office flew back on its hinges, striking the wall with explosive force. Madelyn Grayson stood framed in the entrance, hands on her hips, her blue eyes bright with rage.